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From boring to beautiful: Millwarra Primary students add a splash of colour to their lives



From brown and boring, to colourful and creative: Millwarra Primary students added a dash of colour and life to their school with a new vibrant mural painting.

Spearheaded by a student’s remark that the library wall was “boring”, Millwarra Primary School wellbeing leader Tianh Syme said the mural made students feel some pride in their school.

“Not only did it generate conversation, but you could see their pride in themselves with their chest puffed up a little bit.”

Designed and painted by the students themselves, the mural features the school’s logo, its values, the nearby river and artwork inspired by Indigenous art.

The idea became a reality when Ms Syme contacted paint brand Dulux to pitch the idea to the company, which resulted in the school receiving free paint from the Dulux Community Donation program.

Ms Symes said the mural had profound effects on students who previously had struggled with attendance and motivation to show up to school.

“I noticed there were some mornings where I told the kids I’d be painting in the morning before school if anyone wanted to come and help. And kids who often don’t turn up until 10.30 were there at about 8.30 coming to help paint.”

“So it was such a huge motivator for them to actually want to come to school as well,” Ms Syme said.

But not only has it added colour to the students’ lives, it also brought vibrancy to visitors too.

“I love listening to the kinder gym kids arrive on a Wednesday because you hear them go, ‘oh look at this part, look at this part’ – it’s nice for the kids to be able to just feel valued.”

“They were able to contribute something that will stay there for a long time but also bring so much joy to others,” Ms Syme said.

The Dulux Community Donation program allows not-for-profit organisations to receive free paint to enable communities to freshen up facilities and to take care of the places that’re close to them.

The amount of paint donated by Dulux shocked the students and Ms Syme said she was impressed by the donation program.

“I didn’t even realise that was a thing, but it was great. Looking into it since receiving our donation, it’s impressive,” she said.

“The kids were overwhelmed that a big company like that would invest so much, because paint’s expensive, it was so much money worth of paint just for their small school project.”

It’s Ms Syme’s first year as wellbeing leader at Millwarra Primary School and she said the students were bubbling with ideas of how they can make the school a better place.

“There’s already been so many things that the students or families have asked, and we’ve just gone, ‘yeah, why not.’ “

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